Abstract: By using the DEA-Malmquist productivity index method, the paper evaluates the growth rate of total factor productivity (TFP) of the Chinese cultural industry and relative decompositions (technological progress, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency) through the period of 1999 to 2009. The empirical study results show that the TFP of the Chinese cultural industry displayed a trend to fluctuate greatly. The driving force of growth shifts from the technological progress to the equal combination of technological progress and technical efficiency. The facts should be mainly attributed to the changes of national policies and reform of the cultural system. The inter-comparison among provinces show that, although the TFP of each province's cultural industry was increasing persistently, there is a large difference among investigated provinces. The increase of TFP in places such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong is lower than that in the central and western provinces. The difference of investment in the cultural industry was believed to be the main cause of such an inter-provincial heterogeneity.

Key words: cultural industry, productivity changes, DEA-Malmquist